Madeleine McCann: reconstruction may occur

By Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 7:29PM BST 14/05/2008

A reconstruction of the night Madeleine McCann went missing may still go ahead, her parents’ Portuguese lawyer has said.

Doubts were raised after Kate and Gerry McCann publicly questioned the value of such an exercise so long after their daughter vanished.

But Rogerio Alves said there were “strong indications” that it could take place in the next two weeks.

Speaking at a police conference in Faro in the Algarve, he said: “We have little faith in the benefit of this step and how it can help to discover what happened to Madeleine. But there are strong indications it will go ahead.”

Portuguese detectives want Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley in Leicestershire, to return to the Algarve to re-enact the night of May 3 last year when their eldest child disappeared from their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

They have also asked the couple’s seven friends who dined with them at the nearby tapas bar when Madeleine vanished to go back to Portugal, but they are also thought to be hesitant about returning.

Clarence Mitchell, the McCann’s spokesman, said nothing had been decided.

“The discussions about the possible visit by all nine are still ongoing,” he said. “It is down to the friends - as well as Kate and Gerry - to decide whether they want to go back.

“Of course, Kate and Gerry would do anything they could if they thought it would help find their daughter.

“There are some serious questions surrounding the value of the proposed exercise and only when satisfactory answers have come in and all the friends are happy will it happen.”

A source close to the McCanns, who are still suspects or arguidos in their daughter’s disappearance, said the couple could not understand why a reconstruction was being arranged now, more than a year on.

“It is not going to be televised, so it won’t throw up any new leads outside the police investigation,” said the source. “There are physical differences more than a year on, such as the hedgerows are a different height, for example.

“And has anyone given any thought to how Kate might feel about taking part in a reconstruction with another child playing her daughter?”

The debate over the reconstruction came as the judge in charge of the case decided to extend the secrecy laws surrounding the files for another three months.

This means the McCanns will keep their arguido status until August 15 at the earliest.

Mr Alves said he was not surprised about the extension: “It seems normal to me, I expected it.

“What the judicial secrecy means in this case is that a mother and father are forbidden access to the knowledge they would like to have about what the police are doing to discover something fundamental for them - what happened to their daughter.”

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More “The Resident” Shenanigans

The Resident - the Portuguese ex-pat online newspaper has an article dating from May 8, 2007 (here). The article is shown below as a screen grab. It refers to a Scotland Yard detective being sent to help in the Madeleine McCann disappearance. Written only 5 days after she was reported missing, it would appear that this article has also disappeared.

The link at the foot of that article takes you to a completely different article (here). This is a new article from May 8, 2008 and is unrelated to Scotland Yard sending a detective to the Algarve.

Why is The Resident deleting stories? See our earlier article about Richard Branson featured in The Resident (here).

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Judicial Secrecy Extended Another 3 months

(Article and translation provided courtesy of Joana Morais)

O prazo do segredo de justiça nas investigações ao caso do desaparecimento da criança inglesa Madeleine McCann no Algarve foi prorrogado por três meses, disse hoje à Agência Lusa fonte da Procuradoria-Geral da República (PGR).

Caso o prazo de segredo de justiça não fosse prorrogado por mais três meses, o mesmo terminaria a 15 de Maio.

13 de Maio de 2008, 18:05

Lisboa, 13 Mai (Lusa) - The deadline for the judicial secrecy over the investigations into the case of the disappearance of the English child, Madeleine McCann, in the Algarve, was extended for three months, a source at the State Prosecutor’s Office told Lusa Agency today.

If this deadline had not been extended for another three months, it would have ended on the 15th of May.

Source Lusa News Agency

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Was Branson in the Algarve in April 2007?

The Portuguese ex-pat online newspaper, The Resident, has a series of interesting articles relating to the McCann case. One such article is entitled “Branson Brush Off” and is stated to have been updated on April 26, 2007. We were curious about the article because of the title and a photo of Sir Richard Branson with the caption “Branson mysteriously disappeared”. The article can be found by clicking this (link) but if it gets removed or modified, the picture below is a screen grab taken today.

The article describes a joke which is out of context to the title or the picture of Sir Richard. We emailed Natasha Smith to ask about her article and as soon as we receive a reply we will post it in this site. However, don’t hold your breath.

The Resident have not been very helpful in the past. Recently we contacted Mike Almond at The Resident to ask if he could give us the contact email or phone number for a person who regularly appears in their paper.

Mike Almond’s reply was “As I said, I am sorry I cannot help you.
We are not a directory enquiry service and my response would be the same for anyone.
Thanks.
MIKE ALMOND“

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Ruth McCann Paid €40,000 For 5A Pics

(This article was from a translation kindly provided by Joana Morais)

An interesting fact from today’s Diário de Notícias (not on-line):

NOTW paid around €40.000 Euros/$61.88 U.S. dollars/£31.77 British pounds to do the pictures inside the McCanns apartment.

The apartment 5A, was registered at a certain time to 4 people. In 2006 after the death of Michael William McCann, Ruth Margaret McCann become the sole owner. The apartment has a T2 Typology, which in architectural terms means a two bedroom flat. Ruth McCann told her conditions to the persons responsible of the tourist’s resort, Ocean Club, that the apartment would only be available to rent for a period of one year and for the minimum amount of 24 thousand Euros.

Several proposals appeared, the majority came from British Tabloids, surpassing the value requested by the owner of the apartment.

Last week, Ruth McCann, who lives in the UK, arrived at Praia da Luz (PdL) and requested the key from the reception at the Ocean Club. Discretely, she entered the apartment with a photographer from the English Tabloid News of The World (NOTW). The photos and the footage taken that day from inside the apartment cost around €40.000 Euros ($61.88 U.S. dollars/£31.77 British Pounds).

The apartment has been closed since July for the Judiciary Police investigations, who awaits for the possibility of a re-enactment of the night of the 3rd of May to be done on that location. That diligence is the one who is conditioning the rental of the apartment.

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Maddie News of the World Exclusive: First pictures and video in flat

How fiend could have kept out of sight

By Keith Gladdis & Dominic Herbert

For the first time the News of the World takes you right INSIDE the holiday flat where Madeleine McCann was snatched one year ago.

We are the ONLY media organisation in the world to be invited in to take these exclusive pictures which reveal startling new evidence and insights into the crime mystery that has shocked millions.

Our detailed survey of the flat reveals a host of places Maddie’s abductor could have hidden when it’s most likely he was almost caught in the act by dad Gerry as he checked on her and twins, Sean and Amelie, at 9.05pm on May 3 last year.

But our on-site reconstruction proves that if the kidnapper was already in the flat, as the McCanns fear, he had a full TEN SECONDS to conceal himself after hearing Gerry open the patio doors and enter the apartment.

And he had no fewer than FOUR boltholes to choose from—behind Madeleine’s BEDROOM DOOR, inside her roomy WARDROBE, in her parents’ nearby BEDROOM or in the family BATHROOM.

Our poignant picture at the top of the page also reveals the view into Madeleine’s bedroom that must haunt family friend Matthew Oldfield.

It highlights the tragic but innocent error he made when he checked on the children at 9.30pm while the McCanns were at the nearby tapas bar with the other adults in the party.

From the hall, where he looked into the room, our pictures show that Matthew could only see the bottom corner of Madeleine’s bed.

The twins’ travel cots were beyond on the floor in full view. Seeing them sleeping, he assumed—most probably wrongly—that all was well.

The telltale sign that the kidnapper could already have struck was the open bedroom door—for Gerry had closed it just 25 minutes earlier.
Culprit

There was room for the kidnapper to hide inside Maddie’s fitted wardrobe. Outside the room, bloody footprints were found

Our photos heartbreakingly spell out that if Matthew had only walked a few feet further into the room he could have raised the alarm 35 minutes earlier, giving the police a real chance of catching the culprit.

And our photograph of the room, above right, shows the scene that confronted mum Kate when she arrived at 10pm—her three-year-old daughter Madeleine gone and the rolldown window shutter OPEN.

Tellingly, she had found the bedroom door now closed, blown shut by the draught from the open window looking out on to the road below.

Standing on the very spot, it was not hard to imagine Kate’s shock as the horrible truth sank in after three seconds of disbelief.

The view of the wardrobe in Maddie’s room, right, shows the spot where controversial forensic “evidence” was found——a bloody footprint which was visible to the naked eye.

Inconclusive lab tests found there was a “moderate” chance the blood was Madeleine’s.

There was a report that this footprint matched another in the McCanns’ hire car—although there has never been any confirmation of this.

As we were led through the front door to apartment 5A at the Mark Warner Ocean Club in Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve coast it was like turning back the clock.

The rooms are now eerily silent but it is easy to imagine the excited chatter and kiddies’ laughter that filled the flat right up until the night Maddie vanished last year.

LITTLE Maddie’s bed, where she slept on holiday, is on the left in this photo—covered with a simple blue-check sheet. Only one bottom corner of it could be seen by the McCanns’ friend Matthew Oldfield as he glanced through the door. Next to Maddie, on the floor, the twins’ travel cots were placed in the empty space between the single beds. The bed below the window was empty. This window was originally thought to be the point of access where the abductor broke into the room while the three children were sleeping. Our evidence shows this was unlikely.

If one year on, the News of the World found clues, surely the detectives could have established more AT THE TIME? Crucial DNA evidence could have been lost during those early hours.

ERROR: Matthew Oldfield

The abductor must have touched windows, doors, shutters, particularly if he was disturbed and had to stay longer than he planned.

It is hard to accept that absolutely no tell-tale fibres or hairs were left behind.
The stillness and silence of the apartment now is just as it would have been after the McCanns left the children asleep in bed that fateful night.

And our team heard for themselves how much noise an intruder would have made— reinforcing the theory that this was not an opportunistic snatch but carefully planned.

When the bedroom shutter is opened by a pull-cord it makes a loud piercing creak that could easily have woken the youngsters or alerted Pam- ela Fenn, the woman living upstairs.

This is crucial evidence as it shows the difficulty of entering the property by the window and suggests the likelihood that the kidnapper gained access by the front door or even the rear patio doors.

It also underlines theories that the abductor probably had crucial inside knowledge of the apartment’s interior. Even walking across the ceramic tiled floors in the wrong sort of footwear could have raised the alarm.

After the police finished their investigations inside the bedroom, the walls were painted white.

Fiend’s bolthole? The McCanns’ bedroom	Holiday kitchen: Where Kate cooked for the kids	Lounge: Where Maddie and the twins played

They were said to have been spattered with small traces of blood, but police investigations into that, as into so much else, came to nothing.

Now the rest of the flat has been redecorated and is ready to welcome more holidaying families to Portugal.
But it will take more than a lick of emulsion to remove the terrible images seared into every parent’s mind just one year ago.

Help

Someone, somewhere has information about Madeleine that could be the breakthrough the family have been waiting for.

Anyone with information is urged to contact:

The family investigation hotline on +44 845 8384699
or email investigation@findmadeleine.com.

PORTUGESE POLICE - 0035 1282 405 400
CRIMESTOPPERS - 0044 1883 731 336
NEWS OF THE WORLD - 0044 207 782 1001 or Newsdesk@notw.co.uk

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Charlotte Pennington at Nanny-Agency.com

ID 33648: Charlotte is British and she is 19 years old and a native English speaker.

Her message:
I was born charlotte elizabeth alice on the 28th of february 1987, in berkshire, england. i was the 4th child with 3 older brothers, damien, ciaran and owain. my mother was so relieved to get a daughter, in fact, up until my birth everyone thought i was to going to be a boy. no scan had said otherwise. it wasn’t until a midwife not involved with the birth commented on what a lovely girl i was that my mother realised she had had her daughter. nobody had checked, all assuming i was a boy! from then on i have been the girliest girl, delighting in all things pink and have never looked back! when i was 18 months old my father got a job in new zealand- which is where i remained for the next 17 years. my mother is an actress as well as a drama teacher with a private studio attached to the houses we lived in and therefore i grew up with the sounds of shakespeare pervading through the walls, which was quickly passed on to me and soon enough i had caught the acting bug and had drama cursing through my veins.

my mother, collette, picked up on this and started taking me along to her rehearsals and shows. the theatre became an absolute haven for me. the evocative allure of the stage pulling me closer and closer as i watched every flicker of emotion pass through the actors faces, the costumes, the make-up, the people. i just knew that this is it, my raison d’etre. around the year 2000 my mother remarried, to a man called stuart wighton(whom i now think of as dad, and deciding to be known as charlotte wighton, rather than charlotte pennington) and i propelled head first into the serious world of drama that i had not yet experienced. from the year 2000 to the year 2004 i had played over 16 lead roles of which included my all time favourite role, juliet from none other than romeo and juliet and anne boleyn from anne of a thousand days. i also competed 3 times a year over a course of 5 years and was fortunate enough to have done extremely well and my passion for the stage was able to be seen. my long term goal is to go to drama school which i will do once i have accumulated the fees. while all of the above was going on i did of course have school, friends and jobs. at school i took drama ( of course) but also history, photography, media studies, pe, english, history of art , travel and tourism and human biology all of which i loved. and maths, which i did not. my jobs consisted of nannying, clerical work, promotions work, acting and modelling and being a fairy. i’ve worked as a fairy since i was 14. it all started when i walked into a shop called the enchanted forest and the owner said i looked like a fairy and would i like to work there. would i ever?!

it was a perfect fit, my love for performing plus my love for children combined with the added bonus of glitter. working there meant a hectic, erratic, sporadic and completely opposite to the 9-5 cliché. it was full on with handling different duties; fairying, catering, booking, accounts and retail. but it was all done in a fairy costume and with a smile. but exam time rolled around and i had to temporarily hang up my wings. after the exams i had an idea that i could run my own fairy business, which is exactly what i did. cultivating a network for my parties was a lot of fun (reminded me of a sort-of clean cut disney mafia) i was intrigued one day when i saw the shop where i had my 7th birthday party, the fairy shop was still around so i went inside and had a case of déjà vu, not only did it look the same, granted a tad smaller, the owner mentioned i looked like a fairy and would i like a job? by now you are probably conjuring up some elfin creature complete with pixie ears but i can assure you this is not the case. i think perhaps i have always given off this vibe as children all over and in any place have the urge to smile and wave at me, which i don’t mind one little bit! so, i ended working for the fairy shop as well as having my sideline business all the while attending the nanny centre and getting my nanny certificates and training. now i am hoping for another chapter of my life to begin so . i hope i have let you in a little bit of my world and that you understand more of the sort of person i am.

Charlotte wants a live-in Nanny job to start between now and Dec-06 for 12 months in the United Kingdom and would prefer England

Education, employment and childcare experience

Charlotte has the following childcare experience:

National certificate in child care and education level 3. Worked as a live in and out nanny, as a summer season nanny for mark warner and as a nursery practicioner where i was situated mainly with the under 2’s. Also ran own business doing children’s parties as a fairy!, certificates are above is NNEB level 3 equiv. Current first aid and,

Charlotte can provide a medical certificate and a police report

• Smokes: No
• Driver: No
• Can Swim: Yes
• Willing to cook: Yes
• Willing to do housework: Yes
• Medical problems: allergic to salmon and aspartame
• Hobbies: drama, travel, art history, reading
• Pets she dislike: no, animal lover.
• Holidays requested: 2 weeks over christmas.
• Religion: Roman Catholic, Charlotte sometimes practises her religion

The information on this page was taken directly from the entry at Nanny-Agency at this web address:

http://www.nanny-agency.com/Nanny-Form.cfm?nid=33648

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Gerry McCann Stealing NHS Resources?

By TheTapas10, May 8, 2008

Gerry McCann works at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester as a cardiologist. He is reported as earning £75,000 a year.

For readers outside of the UK who do not understand the British Health System, known as the National Health Service, it is a service funded by the British taxpayer. In effect, the doctors and nurses are civil servants.

Look at the 1MB PDF download on the official FindMadeleine website. This is a PowerPoint Presentation for their trip to Brussels. Here is the link:

http://www.findmadeleine.com/ns/news/detail/?id=37

If you load this PDF file and look at its properties, you can see who authored it and where it was written, along with editing times. The details are shown in the panel at the left.

As you can see, Gerry authored it and if you look at the Company info - it says UHL. UHL is University Hospitals Leicester:

http://www.uhl-tr.nhs.uk/

Basically, Gerry McCann authored this personal document at the British Taxpayers expense!

The McCann’s trip to Brussels was nothing to do with his job at Glenfield or indeed, any other hospital in the UK. The trip was the McCann’s “pet project” and had nothing to do with his role as a cardiologist.

If you are a British taxpayer and you wish to complain about this misuse of public funds, you can register your complaint via a form on the UHL website here:

http://www.uhl-tr.nhs.uk/patients/support-and-advice/making-a-complaint/contact-us

Tapas9.info has already done so and if we received a reply we will of course be publishing it in this site.

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Gerry’s Disgraceful Attire

By TheTapas10, May 5, 2008

Gerry McCann and wife Kate McCann at the church service in Leicestershire on May 3, 2008. Kate clutching flowers and looking reasonably well dressed.

Gerry on the other hand, looks like he’s ready to do a spot of DIY.

At the service of remembrance for missing daughter Madeleine, Gerry chooses to wear blue jeans, trainers and a scruffy sport jacket.

What an absolute disgrace!

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Madeleine: One year on, Portuguese police ’should not be ashamed’ they have not found her, says attorney general

By DANIEL BOFFEY and DAVID WILKES - Last updated at 18:16pm on 4th May 2008

Police should shelve their investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, Portugal’s attorney-general appeared to say today.

His country’s detectives have nothing to be ashamed of if they can’t trace her because it is statistically likely she will never be found, said Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro.

Speaking as the McCanns and their family marked the year anniversary of the toddler’s disappearance with a church ceremony in Praia da Luz, he said: “If the investigation results in failure, it is nothing which should shame the police.

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Balloons are released at a heartbreaking anniversary memorial for missing Madeleine McCann

“These kinds of crimes are extremely difficult to investigate. There are one million missing children per year throughout the world, and not even 20 per cent are found.”

His comments follow criticism of Portuguese detectives by Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann for being more interested in investigating them than the four-year-old’s disappearance.

The couple, who believe Madeleine is alive, told in an ITV documentary last week of their shock and anger at being named as arguidos, or official suspects.

Mrs McCann, 40, said: “As soon as I realised the story or theory was that Madeleine was dead and that we’d been involved somehow, it just hit home. They haven’t been looking for Madeleine.”

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The church in Praia da Luz which has been such a source of support for the McCanns, (below) a collage of articles and pictures on Madeleine

But Mr Monteiro also insisted to Portugal’s Jornal de Noticias newspaper that the police had done what any other police force would do to solve the mystery of what happened to the little girl, adding:

“It may be that we find out yet - let’s wait until the end (of the inquiry).”

The couple vowed to find Madeleine themselves last week as they launched a fresh appeal to anyone with any information to make contact with their investigators via a new hotline.

They have been kept in the dark about the thousands of clues that have flooded into police since Madeleine, then three, vanished in Praia da Luz on May 3 last year.

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Emotional: Kate and Gerry McCann leave the church service, where they both wept

Mr McCann said: “We’ve got little bits of the jigsaw and we’ve got huge gaps. People [Portuguese police] have had a fair crack. As parents we just want to make sure everything possible has been done.”

Mrs McCann added: “You get to the point where you think we will have to find out for ourselves.”

Yesterday Kate McCann begged friends and family to keep Madeleine in their prayers at a church service to remember her daughter a year on from her disappearance.

In a tearful and unplanned plea from the pulpit, Kate told them: “Pray like mad. Please stay with us, stay with Madeleine…keep praying.”

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Keep praying: a poster advertises the prayer service for Madeleine

Appearing fragile after a week-long media blitz to publicise the hunt for her child, Kate had held her head down for much of the service at St Mary and St John, in Rothley, Leicestershire.

Gently sobbing at times, she appeared a broken figure, one year on to the day her then three-year-old went missing from Praia da Luz, Portugal.

Next to her in the front pew of the packed church sat her husband Gerry, holding her hand and staring ahead.

At the end of 40 minutes of prayer, Kate, wearing blue jeans, a floral blouse and a beige jacket, rose unexpectedly to thank friends and say how much their three-year-old twins Sean and Amelie missed their sister.

She was barely audible, and struggled to hold back tears, as she said: “I have spoken quite a lot this week so I will keep it short.

“It is just to say a huge thank-you really for coming to remember, for your support.

“We have been quite strong but couldn’t have got through without you.

“You know how much she means to us, and to Sean and Amelie.

“We know you have been praying and we ask you to keep going.”

As Kate, 40, returned to her pew, the 200-strong congregation applauded and friends rushed to console her as she fell weeping into her husband’s arms.

Also in church were David and Fiona Payne, and Rachel and Dr Matthew Oldfield, four of the ‘Tapas Seven’ friends who were dining with the McCanns when Madeleine vanished.

Gerry, 39, was hugged by friends and wept at the end of the service – which included a prayer written by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu.

Kate’s aunt, Janet Kennedy, said: “How Kate mustered the courage to speak, I don’t know. But it was very inspiring.”

Kate and Gerry only finally decided to attend the service yesterday after a relentless tour of TV studios.

A friend revealed Gerry had to be persuaded to not volunteer to be on call over the weekend at Glenfield hospital, in Leicester, where he is a cardiologist.

Kate has vowed not to return to work as a GP until Madeleine is home.

The friend said: “They are trying to get their lives back to normality.

“But Gerry could see in the end that he couldn’t be on call on this weekend.”

The couple’s spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, admitted they were finding the anniversary more painful than they had anticipated.

He said: “It is an intensely private day, very difficult. In some ways being at home is the best place but in other ways it is the worst.”

On his blog, Gerry wrote: “It has been the longest year of our lives, yet it does not seem like a year.”

In a Portuguese newspaper Gerry admitted he has struggled with guilt over enjoying time with the twins while Madeleine is missing.

Meanwhile, Gerry’s brother John, 48, arrived in Praia da Luz before a candlelit mass.

He said: “We are here to thank the people of Portugal who have supported Gerry and Kate. We really do feel we can get Madeleine back.”

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Heartbreaking anniversary: Madeleine has been missing for exactly a year

Last night, it was revealed the McCanns’ financial backer, tycoon Brian Kennedy, had met Robert Murat, the first suspect in the case.

The meeting took place at Mr Murat’s aunt’s house in the Algarve last year.

Mr Murat’s lawyer, Francisco Pagarete, said: ‘We had a very pleasant dinner with Mr Kennedy.

“He came here to give his support to Robert and to say he doesn’t believe Robert was involved in this story in any way.

“And he asked if Robert could help the investigation for the finding of Madeleine.”

It is understood the meeting in November was also attended by Mr Kennedy’s lawyer, Edward Smethurst, who is co-ordinating the McCanns’ legal affairs.

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